The Kingdom of God (Part 1 of 2)

The Most Followers of Jesus expected the Messiah would usher in a powerful earthly kingdom.

But of course, that's not what happened. And today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg breaks down the parables of Jesus to explain God's far greater purpose and the secrets of his kingdom. And Mark chapter 4, and we're going to read from verse 26. Jesus is speaking.

He also said, This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seeds sprout and grow, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces corn, first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come. Again he said, What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground.

Yet when planted it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade. With many similar parables, Jesus spoke the word to them as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable.

But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. Amen. We pray, before we look at the Bible, Father, what we know not, teach us. What we have not, give us. What we are not, make us.

For your Son's sake. Amen. History records that in the spring of 1630, on the deck of the Arbella, a small sailing vessel off the coast of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, the leader of this little group of pilgrims, stood on the deck and preached essentially a sermon to them. Not all of that has been left for us, but part of it has been recorded and is as follows.

Addressing the group on the deck of his boat, he said, We shall be as a city on a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world. And with those words, Winthrop was saying farewell to all that he saw of the forces of tyranny and oppression that he and his crew had left behind, allowing them to look forward to what was essentially a brave new world, an opportunity of freedom to worship as they chose, and so on. There's no surprise in that, because even a cursory reading of history makes it clear that every society has a dream of a better world. It's impossible to read the history of America without recognizing that succeeding generations have looked at what they've got, looked at where we've been, and have looked forward and said to one another, Surely we can look for something better than this.

And what is true of our own nation is certainly true throughout the history of the world. It is therefore no surprise that when we turn to the biblical record, when we turn to the history of the people of God, we find that this principle is also in place—that all of the way through from Genesis right through to the end of things, as they're depicted for us in the book of Revelation, you have the people of God looking back at what has been, looking around at what is, and looking forward to the prospect of what will be. Many times in the face of oppression and tyranny and persecution, with nothing to go on except the Word of God itself spoken through the prophets. And the prophets spoke to the people in every generation, telling them of the promises of God, assuring him of his covenant, affirming for them the fact that he had in the future for them that which would fulfill all of their hopes and aspirations. And so that is why, when we read, for example, in the classic words of Isaiah the prophet that we rehearse routinely around Christmastime, although it's not unique to that era, we read of the one who's going to come, a child who is born, a son who is given. And remember, it says in Isaiah 9, the government will be upon his shoulders, and of his government and of peace there will be no end. And he will reign on the throne of David forever and forever. Now, Isaiah was writing there of that which would be fulfilled. He himself really didn't understand the fulfillment of it, and the people of his day didn't really either.

But generations came and went, and parents would have told their children, and children would have grown to be parents and have told their children too, although we are oppressed, although we seem to be going nowhere. Nevertheless, God has made promises to us, and one day somebody's going to come and intervene. This person who comes will be a Messiah. This person who comes will be supernatural, for it will take someone supernatural to deal with all of the conflict and the pain and the woe. And so it was that in the time of the birth of the Lord Jesus, the stirrings, as it were, the rustlings in the leaves, the questions on the lips of the people of God, somehow or another began to take on a peculiarly renewed focus. And when Mark tells us that Jesus came into Galilee, making this dramatic statement, which is in verse 15 of chapter 1, we need to read the statement of Jesus in verse 15 of chapter 1 in light, first of all, not of whatever was written in the plain dealer this morning, but in light of all that the people who were the hearers of the words of Jesus brought to that instance—all of the thought of a supernatural deliverer, all of the prospect of a kingdom, all of the notions of somebody greater than King David. With that in mind—if you can put your ears there, as it were—imagine what you might have thought when suddenly this carpenter from Galilee stands up and says, quote, The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is near.

Repent and believe the good news. Now, for all of these hundreds of years, the people of God have been expecting a kingdom, have been anticipating a king. And so, for someone to stand up and make such an outright and vibrant declaration would all too readily, all too easily, make it possible for them to see in the words of this individual the prospect of political revolution and of national restoration. Time has passed, and even today, people still turn to their Bibles, to the words of Jesus, seeking to find in them the very same thing—political revolution and national restoration.

And Jesus disavows his listeners and his followers in that day and continues to do so in our day. So instead of him, as it were, throwing a match down and lighting the tinder, as it were, of potential revolution and nationalistic fervor, what does he do? He tells stories. Tells stories. Albeit enigmatic stories. Albeit intriguing stories. But nevertheless, stories. And these stories are recorded for us in the Gospels.

Mark here has given us a selection. And I want you to notice verses 33 and 34, which is the end of the passage that we read, but I want us to deal with the summary as a beginning, if that isn't too convoluted for you. First of all, looking at this summary statement that Mark gives us, with many similar parables, Jesus spoke the word to them.

Mark tells us three things—I'll point them out just briefly as we go. First of all, he tells us that what we have here in chapter 4 is a selection of the parables Jesus told. He has provided his readers, if you like, with a taste of the parables. We know that, because he says there were many similar parables that Jesus spoke to them that he clearly has not recorded. You find more in Luke.

You find others in Matthew as well. Mark has decided to give us, if you like, small plates of parables. Tapas, for those of you who are familiar now with a Spanish form of eating that has been introduced to the American culture, to try and help us to stop gorging ourselves on fantastically large plates of food. And so it's all very trendy.

Now, I think I'll have the tapas. You know, it's, oh, very nice. Just a little plate. The restaurateurs love it as well, because I didn't notice that they reduced the price. They just reduced the size. So it's a wonderful American absorption of a Spanish way of life.

And it's actually a pretty good idea. Well, what Mark says is, I just gave you a few little plates of the parables. I didn't give you a gigantic, big plate. That's the first thing.

I have given you a selection. The second thing he tells us is that Jesus, in teaching in this way, adapted his words to the level of understanding that he found in his listeners. You see, that's right there in the text, in verse 33.

He spoke the word to them as much as they could understand. Yes, the parables were enigmatic—we've noticed that already—but nevertheless, they were significant enough, they were understandable enough, for people to say, I get that, I wonder what he really means. Calvin suggests that Jesus employs the parables, in part, to keep the attention of his listeners awake till a more convenient time.

And if that is true, those of us who teach and preach ought to take a leaf out of Jesus' book. At least we could make an attempt at keeping the attention of our listeners awake rather than seeing them drift into the third stage of anesthesia before we've really gone very far at all. Some listened and were left cold. Some listened and became hot and changed. The third thing he tells us, why we have summary, is that while Jesus employed parables with the crowd when he was alone—notice the final sentence of verse 34—when he was alone with his own disciples, he gave them an explanation. He was explaining to them—and that's why in verse 11, you will perhaps recall—he told them that the secret of the kingdom of God had been given to them. Now, if this was school, if this was class, and you had been in my class for these first four chapters on Mark, I would ask one of the bright students to let the rest of the class know what this secret is. What is it when Jesus says, the secret of the kingdom? And hopefully there would be at least somebody who had taken notes and would be able to rehearse the fact that the secret is simply this—that the kingdom of God has come in the person and in the words and in the works of Jesus.

But this is not obvious. He is a king, but he is a veiled king. After all, you would expect a king to have a crown. He doesn't have one. You would expect a king to have a palace. He doesn't live in one. You would expect a king to have a significant entourage, but what has he got? A few fishermen and different bits and pieces that are hanging around with him.

Not a very impressive group. Certainly you would never see him coming down the street and then say to one another, you know, there is the king of the universe. No, only faith would recognize the Son of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Only faith would, could, and can identify the Son of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. That's why people today will say all kinds of things about Jesus. I think Jesus was this. I think Jesus was that. And then you'll come across somebody who says, I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord of the universe.

I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Friend. And someone said, Well, why would you say that about Jesus? By faith. Now, remember that it wasn't only the religious authorities that were opposed to Jesus. Jesus' own family thought he'd flipped. That's what Mark has told us in chapter 3. You remember that when the great crowd gathered so that even the disciples were not able to eat their food—chapter 3 and verse 21? When his family, Jesus' family, heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, He is out of his mind. He's out of his mind.

We know who he is. His brothers didn't believe in him. He worked with Joseph in the carpenter's shop, and now he's out, and he's saying and doing some remarkable things.

Only faith could see the Son of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It all seemed, from one perspective, completely insignificant. The way it seems insignificant today.

The way it seems trivial today. And that's what really brings us appropriately to consider the two parables that he gives to us here, beginning in verse 26. But before we go to those parables, let me give you a summary of the summary, just in case it's helpful to you.

If it isn't, then I apologize for taking your time. But this is how I summarize the summary for myself. Verses 33 and 34. First of all, I wrote down the word selection to remind me that we don't have all the parables, but we have a selection. Then I wrote down the word connection to remind me that Jesus, in his teaching, was making connection with people. He spoke to them in such a way that they would be able to understand according to their level of understanding. He didn't speak down to them. He didn't speak over their heads.

Nor did he bypass their heads, which would be even worse, wouldn't it? Selection, connection, distinction. He distinguished between the way in which he spoke to the general populace and the way in which he explained everything to his core group.

All right. Now, from the summary, let's go up to verse 26–29, and let's gather our thoughts, if it's helpful, just under one word, and the word is mystery. Mystery. If you look at the final phrase of verse 27, you can identify where this comes from. The sower has gone, and he's done the things that sowers do, and the seeds all sprout and grow. And then notice the last phrase of verse 27, though he does not know how. Though he does not know how. He's got no idea how it happens.

The picture is clear. Jesus describes it. A man scatters seed on the ground. It's sown quietly, it's sown routinely, it's sown progressively, and all of this takes place mysteriously, and it yields a harvest.

In the beginning, the activity of the sower may appear to be making little impact. And you couldn't hear anything. You couldn't hear the seed hitting the soil. And when you went to bed at night and you got up in the middle of the night, perhaps for a glass of water, and you looked out the window, there was nothing there either.

In fact, somebody could say to you, you know, I don't think there's any possibility of anything coming about. And then one day you were out, and there were little chutes and stalks. And before you knew where you were, you were driving your car along the back way here to Parkside, and the corn that had gone, it looked like it had gone forever and ever, is now as high as an elephant's eye. And you're looking up at it rather than down at the fallow field. And the sower has contributed nothing to the germination. The sower's significance is only in the scattering and then ultimately in the harvest. But from the outside, it looks as if nothing's happening.

That's what Jesus is saying. Now, I'm not a country boy. I'm a city dweller. I had to learn this lesson. I'm thankful that my grandmother taught it to me. She taught it to me by way of hyacinth bulbs, as I recall. And there was a sort of annual routine in my grandmother's house—we should have called it the Festival of the Hyacinths—but I can vividly remember her taking hyacinth bulbs and burying them side by side, usually two, in a kind of oblong porcelain pot with a tiny little tip sticking out, and then we went through the process of going into one of the bedrooms and putting the pot under the bed.

I don't know if I remember the first time, but I never really saw my grandmother down on her hands and knees like this, and it just seemed bizarre to me. And she told me, you know, if you wait, you'll be surprised what happens. Well, I waited. I waited about fifteen minutes, and I went back, and I crawled under the bed, and there was nothing happening at all. And I came out, and I told her, Hey, your thing's not working.

No, she said, You need to wait. And then, of course, you know, what I discovered. You found those beautiful purple or pink blooms as the bulbs gave way to something dramatic. Well, you say, What is this?

Horticulture class? What is Jesus doing here? Telling people what they know?

No. Remember, the seed is the Word of God. Jesus is actually giving an illustration here of how God comes to reign in a person's heart. How he comes to forgive and to cleanse and to renew and to change. How, in the first instance of childlike faith or tender belief or Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, it may appear to everyone on the outside that nothing is happening at all. Indeed, the germination process means may seem to take forever before there are those evidences, even tiny sprouts and shoots that say, Oh, I think this person is alive. You can find it through your whole Bible.

I won't delay on it. It's mysterious. The hymn writer eventually says, I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word, and creating faith in him. Nicodemus didn't understand it in John chapter 3. Jesus has said to him, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus surprisingly starts this big question, this kind of obstetrician dialogue, and Jesus says, No, you missed the point entirely. And he says, There is a mystery in this. The wind blows.

You don't know where it comes from or where it's going. And so it is, he says, with everyone who is born of the Spirit. You're listening to Truth for Life. That is Alistair Begg with a message titled The Kingdom of God.

We'll hear more tomorrow. We're learning just how essential faith is for us to be able to recognize Jesus as Savior and Son of God, and also to trust in God's promises, even when circumstances seem to overwhelm us. In the Old Testament, we learn how Joseph's faith prevailed despite the onslaught of trial after trial. Alistair unpacks Joseph's extraordinary story in a book titled The Hand of God. And if you've never read this book, be sure to go online today at truthforlife.org slash hand.

You can download it for free as an ebook. Now let me assure you, you're going to love this book. Alistair helps us see clearly that God's sovereignty and providential care is at work, even in the midst of very dire circumstances, in the same way it was in Joseph's life.

If you've ever wondered, is God still in control? Read the book The Hand of God. And again, you can download the free ebook at truthforlife.org slash hand.

And pass the news along to your friends as well. We are thrilled to be able to extend this special offer, The Hand of God, as a free ebook during the month of July. You may not realize nearly all of Alistair's books can be purchased year-round at our cost. You'll find them in our online store at truthforlife.org slash store. We offer so many free or at-cost resources because we want to be able to provide clear, relevant Bible teaching to anyone who desires to learn more. And of course, all of this is possible because of our truth partners, generous listeners like you who pray for the ministry, who give each month to help cover the cost of producing this daily program. If you are one of our truth partners, thank you on behalf of so many who listen. If you're not yet a truth partner, would you consider becoming a part of this essential team today? You choose the amount you want to pledge each month and your monthly giving helps bring free and at-cost Bible teaching to a global audience. You can call us today at 888-588-7884 to become a truth partner, or you can sign up through the mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash truth partner. And when you sign up, be sure to request the book 100 Proofs that Jesus is God. The book is our way of saying thanks for your partnership. We are so glad you joined us today. News from around the world may make it seem like Christianity is on the decline, but tomorrow we'll find out why we can rest assured that Christianity will never truly fade away. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.